The Metal Gear series, created by Hideo Kojima in 1987, is the Trope Maker and Trope Codifier of the Stealth Based Game genre. The idea came when Kojima realized that the MSX2 couldn't show more than a few enemies at a time without flashing epileptically and generally breaking - so why not make a game where avoiding your enemies is the theme? This concept received a lot of criticism - one famous quote from Kojima's boss is, "Hiding from your enemies? That's not a game!". But then they started playing it. And it became quite a hit, spawning a great many sequels (with countless ports and editions):

The plot is far too complicated (and occasionally batshit crazy) to write here in any detail beyond the vaguest - besides, it would spoil it all - but the general plot centres around the main character, Solid Snake, his family and the titular Metal Gears - walking battle tanks capable of launching nuclear strikes from anywhere in the globe.

The series loves breaking the fourth wall and has a distinct quirky sense of humor - running jokes involve the iconic use of a cardboard box to sneak around a base (wait until he's not looking, run to a new location, and repeat). Hideo Kojima's irreverence is such that he's been trying to kill the series off since Metal Gear Solid 2 made its protagonist switch, so he can get on with more interesting things, but a rabidly devoted fanbase simply won't let him.

One of the most engaging parts of the games is the huge focus on multiple uses for items. For example, the cigarettes, while they seem like a pointless gag item, the player soon discovers that by equipping them they can see laser beams with the smoke, although they suffer a cost as the cigarettes sap their health little by little. They also calm the main character's nerves, making him aim straighter. If that isn't enough, there's always at least one character who will gives the player a long lecture about the dangers of smoking if you contact them.

Following the initial Metal Gear, each game has been a Deconstruction of action movies and video games, playing tropes so painfully straight they curve right back in on themselves. Very few tropes are invoked without logically following them through, especially those of spy movies - we see exactly what kind of mind and complete control of a situation would be needed to pull off the absurdly complex Gambit Roulettes that happen once per game, exactly what happens to a Tyke Bomb forced to take up a normal life, and there's a female on male sexual abuse subplot which is not at all okay, to name just a handful.

Solid Snake began as a Deconstruction of the Badass trope, as his wartime experiences had not turned him into the ultimate action hero, but into a bitter, broken-down wreck of a soldier who just wanted to retire but could not escape the life of conflict that had entwined him for so long. After fans missed the point slightly, this theme was hammered home with Raiden, who was put through the same torments as Snake in explicit detail. Not even Big Boss is immune to this theme: as Naked Snake, he's not the suave, impeccable agent that would fit perfectly into the '70s spy film pastiche of Metal Gear Solid 3, but a likable, kinda-dorky (though admittedly brilliant at what he does) everyguy. Only after going through immense psychological and physical scarring does he begin to resemble the ultimate soldier known as Big Boss.

The series is acclaimed for a lot of good reasons - stellar gameplay, very complex plots with pitch perfect Deconstructions, excellent direction, intelligent character development and weird stylized dialogue. Just prepare for a lot of cutscenes. I mean, a lot of cutscenes. No, more than that. Honestly, you play the game for two-fifths of the time, watch a full-length movie the other three-fifths. If you like the plot, though, you'll probably love the cutscenes.

Currently the latest game in the series is yet another spinoff: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, featuring Raiden, who has certainly been Rescued from the Scrappy Heap. Which will take a huge detour from the stealthy origins of the series, and instead become a pure (an very over-the-top) action game. In addition, a new site on Kojima Productions was uploaded that is recruiting new engineers for a new Metal Gear game that is strongly implied to involve Big Boss as well as a dog.

Please do not dump tropes that only apply to specific games on this page; put them on the appropriate pages or on the character page. This page is for tropes that appear several times throughout the series.

The following tropes are common to many or all entries in the Metal Gear franchise.For tropes specific to individual installments, visit their respective work pages.

"Basically, the high-frequency upgrade sets the blade vibrating really, really fast, right? That vibration acts on the electron shells of atoms in the sword, and the local electromagnetic field. When the EMF achieves resonance, the blade's bonding is strengthened. At a quantum level, it's like the entire sword is made up of the exact same particle type. It also disrupts any atoms it comes into contact with -- say, those that make up the target. Their electron clouds shrink from exposure to quantum decoherence at the Planck scale. In other words, it electrically severs the bonds that keeps the target's atoms together."

Absolute Cleavage: (EVA, even as a much older woman). Naomi in Metal Gear Solid 4, where she leaves her labcoat unbuttoned and is obviously wearing no bra.

Naomi Hunter's lack of a bra is even a point that gets brought up in gameplay in one level; after being "rescued" by PMC soldiers and Haven Troopers, you're forced to track Naomi. The Haven Troopers use a variety of tricks to try and catch you including a voice recording and a pink bra left on the trail. According to the Integral Podcast, the designers wanted to have leave various pieces of female clothing throughout the trails, and a naked, unconscious female soldier near the end of the level.

Air Vent Passageway: Handy to escape guards. At least half-invented this trope, at least in the world of video game publishing.

All Up to You: In most of the games, the radio contact who usually supplies info in regards to how to defeat various bosses is, for various reasons, unable to help Snake out in defeating the final boss. The only notable exceptions to this rule are Metal Gear Solid 3 where everyone in Snake's control team is cheering him on in beating The Boss, and Portable Ops, where Roy Campbell supplies some hints on how to beat Gene.

All There in the Manual: Many of the characters' backstories are only revealed in supplemental materials or in optional Codec within the game. The most notable is the true identity of The Boss and The Sorrow's son, who is only revealed if you trigger a radio call between Snake and EVA in Metal Gear Solid 3. It's Ocelot.

The Metal Gear Solid 4 Database, in addition to compiling every piece of Metal Gear lore up to Metal Gear Solid 4, features an extensive backstory for Raiden of what happened to him between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Metal Gear Solid 4 that is not even mentioned in the game itself.

Alternate Continuity: Ghost Babel is an alternate sequel to the first Metal Gear; the first Acid game follows a different story (though Snake is still a legendary soldier) and the second goes further.

Ghost Babel had some hidden foreshadowing to the plot of Metal Gear Solid 2.

Snake's Revenge was also relegated to an alternate continuity after Metal Gear 2 was made, although it was originally intended to be a true sequel.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance included "Snake Tales", a series of five missions that featured Snake going through stages from Sons of Liberty, but with different plot point (there's no mention of the Patriots, and Snake's backstory is subject to changes). "A Wrongdoing" features Snake trying to save the President from Fatman, which turns out to be a plot by a third party. "Big Shell Evil" features Snake saving Emma Emmerich from Russian drug traffickers, while another third party is planning another plot. "Confidential Legacy" features Snake facing off against Sergei Gurlukovich and Meryl aboard the Tanker, and serves as a direct sequel to the first game. "Dead Man's Whisper" features Snake trying to save the Colonel Dolph from Vamp, with another conspiracy transpiring in the background. "External Gazer", the fifth and final tale, involves an alternate-universe Solidus planning on wrecking the multiverse by having Solid Snake destroy a fifty foot tall guard with death ray eyes.

Alternate Universe: Cloning was perfected extremely early, and apparently, so were exo-skeletons and mecha and gigantic Big Brother ships. Oh, and batshit AI.

The first game, made in 1987, takes place in 19XX (later established to be 1995). The second game, made in 1990, takes place in 1999 and has the Soviet Union survive past 1991. Metal Gear Solid, made in 1998, takes place in 2005 and contains the line "the nuclear age ended with the turn of the millennium." Metal Gear Solid 2, released in 2001, took place in 2007 and 2009. So it takes place in the future, which is now the past, but the next game takes place in the future anyway, which won't happen because the past didn't happen because it was just a theory about what the future would be, This makes for one of the most confusing timelines in the history of fiction. Only the addition of time travel could it make it more confusing.

Ancient Conspiracy: Subverted in Portable Ops and further in Metal Gear Solid 4. The actual conspiracy, The Patriots, were formed fairly recently, in the 1970s, and only use the ancient conspiracy, The Philosophers, as a disguise to hide behind. The only link between the two is that the Patriots were founded with the money that the Philosophers left behind when they split.

Anyone Can Die: A good number of main characters do. At the end of Metal Gear Solid 4, more than 80% of all characters are dead.

Also: "Neither enemy or friend", "I've still got a job to do", and "The world needs only one Boss/Snake/Big Boss".

Don't forget Snake's usual response to people telling him smoking is dangerous; "So's war and I've done that all my life." tends to show up, making for a heartwarming moment when Snake gives up at the end of 4, after he learns he doesn't have to fight anymore.

Artistic License: Biology: Most infamously in the first Metal Gear Solid, where it is revealed that Solid Snake and Liquid Snake are both clones of Big Boss. Yet somehow they have different genetic makeup.

Finally revealed/retconned in Metal Gear Solid 4 as the two being genetically manipulated by the Patriots for different purposes. Solidus is the only 100% identical clone of Big Boss.

Not exactly retconned as in Metal Gear Solid Liquid straight-up says that they were trying to isolate the genes that made Big Boss the ultimate soldier, and to do this they created two imperfect clones to see which had the greater natural ability.

Back Tracking: One of the more Egregious examples occurs in Metal Gear Solid. Upon encountering Sniper Wolf, Snake is told to go find a sniper rifle, which is in a room fairly close to where the player started the game. Snake even lampshades it.

The Twin Snakes alleviates this by placing a non-lethal one much closer to where the player actually needs it.

Badass Grandpa: Several. There's Big Boss, Revolver Ocelot, and The End. Solid Snake becomes one in Metal Gear Solid 4, and EVA is a Badass Grandma in the same game as well.

Snake's case is arguably that of a deconstruction, as Snake fighting in spite of his condition isn't solely treated as being heroic or inspiring. Rather, it's occasionally treated as being foolish and suicidal by the other characters at the minimum, and said characters aren't above patronizing and treating him like a burden.

Badass Longcoat: Ocelot. Liquid would count except he only has the coat on for maybe two scenes maximum.

Badass Normal: Snake, at least when compared to the majority of his supernaturally-gifted or crazy-equipped foes. He does have enormous willpower and is Made of Iron, but he can't carry an M61 vulcan cannon and doesn't usually have kickass battle armor to help him.

Big Boss arguably even more so seeing as he isn't a cloned super soldier.

Oddly enough, Johnny qualifies for this trope. He's patently useless in the majority of appearances, but his actions at the end of Metal Gear Solid 4 cement his status (considering he was just a normal completely unmodified human soldier).

The Bad Guy Wins: Most of the Metal Gear Solid games (barring Metal Gear Solid 4) has the main characters actually unwittingly allowing the bad guys from behind the scenes to succeed in their overall evil plan, usually revealed in The Stinger. Metal Gear Solid 2 and, to a certain extent, Peace Walker are notable exceptions to the whole Stinger route, where it is made pretty clear that the behind the scenes villains won even before we get to The Stinger.

It helps that the bulk of the series is essentially one big Enemy Civil War, with the Patriots as an elusive Bigger Bad. The Big Bads of all of the main series games (BigBoss, Liquid Snake, Solidus Snake and Ocelot) all turn out to be rebelling against the Patriots for personal gain, so stopping them invariably just helps the Patriots maintain their stranglehold on the world.

Banana Republic: Outer Heaven and Zanzibarland in the original MSX2 games. Oddly enough, the Metal Gear Solid games mostly avert this, with the exception of "Army's Heaven" in Portable Ops. The side-story installments also have Gindra in Metal Gear: Ghost Babel and the Moloni Republic in Metal Gear Acid.

Beat Them At Their Own Game: Sniper Wolf and then Crying Wolf... the matching second names are not a coincidence, right down to a similar location for the boss fight, both in a Snowfield and Communications Tower on Shadow Moses Island.

It's not impossible to take down Sniper Wolf with Nikita missiles at the final confrontation.

Bigger Bad: The Patriots are this for the overall series. They're the biggest threat, but Snake never comes into direct conflict with them until the Grand Finale. For the most part, they're vaguely defined and stay in the shadows. Ironically, most of the Big Bads that he faces in individual games are actually battling the Patriots themselves, though for differing reasons.

Bittersweet Ending: Every individual game, though the bitterness and sweetness varies with each one.

But Not Too Foreign: Pretty mild for most characters but up the ying-yang for the Snake "family." Although Western in origin and in spite of the fact that both Otacon (who's surname is Jewish-German!) and Mei Ling look much more Asian than any of the Snakes, the characters are told again and again how Asian they are. Says Vulcan Raven in MGS1: "The blood of the East runs in your veins" and he then goes on to describe (how he knows this we have no idea) that Snake's ancestors were from Japan and before that the Mongolian plains. As it turns out, Snake and his brother Liquid were cloned using a donor egg from a Japanese woman (so their mitochondrial DNA is East Asian).

Otacon himself is a pretty good example as, while (as far can be told) he's entirely European in origin, he is an emphatic Japanophile. Likewise, Raiden, while not a Japanophile, seems like he walked straight out of one of Otacon's Japanese animes.

Johnny Sasaki, who gets knocked out a lot and keeps getting bad diarrhea problems, and is The Scrappy of Rat Patrol 01... up until he gets some badass points and steals Meryl from our lovable, crotchety old clone.

Raiden has it pretty rough as well. In MGS2 he is nagged by his girlfriend, is urinated on, he gets beaten up and used as bait for certain people, it is revealed that his parents were murdered by Solidus, and that's just his first appearance. In MGS3 he was parodied by Volgin's gay lover Raikov, a usable face mask that Major Zero and Sokolov both apparently dislike, and Metal Gear Raiden: Snake Eraser where he travels back in time to kill Big Boss so that he could become the main character of MGS. To say he failed miserably there would be a understatement. In between MGS2 and MGS4 he is told by Rose that she suffered a miscarriage, don't worry Rose was lying after which he is tortured by the Patriots and used as a guinea pig for their experiments, his head is severed from his body at the jaw and transplanted to an entirely synthetic body, which is later upgraded to the exoskeleton we see him wearing in MGS4.

Canon Discontinuity: Snake's Revenge, a sequel to the NES version of the first Metal Gear which Konami produced for the international market without Kojima's involvement. It was technically the first Metal Gear sequel, as it actually inspired Kojima to make Metal Gear 2 in the first place.

Also Gray Fox also used Null, Psycho Mantis, Vulcan Raven, Decoy Octopus, Sniper Wolf, Vamp, Fatman, Fortune, The Pain, The Fear, The Sorrow, The Fury, The Boss who also went by The Joy, EVA uses "Matka Pluku" or Big Mama in 4 Ocelot and his variations Revolver Ocelot, Major Ocelot and Liquid Ocelot, Major Zero who also used Major Tom, Viper, Python, Laughing Octopus, Raging Raven, Crying Wolf and Screaming Mantis, and those are only the millitary issued ones. Kojima seems to have a 'thing' about codenames. Justified as they are mostly special operations soldiers though.

Cold War: The setting of the Naked Snake games (MGS3, MPO, and Peace Walker).

Companion Cube: The cardboard box. Both Solid and Naked Snake apparently have some sort of sexual fetish with it, and the Naked believes that not only is his being in the box his destiny, but it is also the true key to happiness. The former finds it relaxing to sit in the box - or, y'know, barrel. Solid Snake doesn't just find the box relaxing, to him, it's the most important thing he has on him. He even lectures Raiden about it, giving the famous "Take care of your cardboard box, and it'll take care of you" comment.

"I'm not exaggerating when I say the success of your mission hinges on how you use that cardboard box."

Continuing Is Painful: Variation: You can continue as much as you want without any harm except your rank at the end suffer. On the other hand, with the exception of a few bosses that your support team gives you more specific advice for (and on two cases, both tell you the secret that makes the fight possible) on future attempts, there is no reason to not just select "exit" to go the main menu and then load instead as long as you remember to save at the start of each area (where "continue" will return you to).

Copy Protection: Metal Gear Solid had an important character's Codec number on the back of the CD that you needed to call in order to advance. While it certainly stalled the game for anyone who didn't buy it new in its box, this probably wasn't intentional copy protection, more likely another example of what the series likes doing to the fourth wall.

Metal Gear 2 had a radio frequency on the box, and a table to decipher TAP codes in the manual.

Although as development started for 2 before 1 saw international release, and 1 and 2 end in major cliff hangers Ocelot stole the data for REX in 1 and revealed that the President of America was a clone of Big Boss, and in 2 it's revealed at the end that the Patriots supposedly died "about a hundred years ago" not to mention how Kojima's always been happy with his fanbase and his work on Metal Gear, this could be seen as people reading too much into what he's said.

Cutscene: Let's just say there are two types of people in the Metal Gear fandom: those who hate Metal Gear because of the cutscenes, and people who don't.

It is frequently said by fans that Metal Gear's an interactive story, rather than a game, not that it's a bad thing.

Cyber Cyclops: The Ninja in MGS1 and Metal Gear Ray are both cyclopes.

Only the mass production models of Metal Gear RAY are Cyclopes. The prototype has two optical sensors.

Also, although Gray Fox's mask affects the appearance of a cyclops, if you look closely the eye holes are actually two slits immediately next to the giant red scanner. However, the aesthetic remains similar.

Death Seeker: Metal Gear Solid had Gray Fox, who was looking for one last battle with Solid Snake. MGS2 introduced us to Fortune, whose father died in the tanker incident, followed by her husband's death and a miscarriage as a result of all the stress. She cannot be hit by bullets due to a top secret electromagnetic weapon that she unknowingly carries. Vamp doesn't really start playing this role until MGS4, and injects himself with nanomachine suppressants in order to cancel out his healing factor and finish himself once and for all. Snake himself arguably counts in MGS4, since his reasons for living are rapidly disappearing. He decides to see the world with Otacon during his last few months, however.

Dysfunction Junction: The games go to lengths to point out just how incredibly screwed up almost every single character is, and the tragic consequences of such.

Eagle Land: Mostly Type 1 through the MGS series. America's got a few skeletons in the closet, and some of the people in power are in it just for the perks, but all the heroes and even many of the sympathetic villains (most notably Solidus and The Boss) beieve American ideals are worth fighting for.

Elite Mooks: The Hi-Tech Soldiers, Arsenal Tengu in MGS2, the Rocket-men and FROG units in MGS4.

Enemy Chatter: Only during Alert, Evasion, and Caution phases. However, there is some chatter to be found in most games, if you look hard enough.

Enemy-Detecting Radar: Present in all of the main MGS games, in one form or another. The first two had the "Soliton Radar" which showed you the position and facing of enemies on a nearby radar minimap. Some people complained--justifiably--that the radar actually made things a little too easy. For MGS3, the prequel, they had a number of lower-tech solutions that all ran off of battery power: A motion sensor that would not detect stationary enemies, a "sound ping" radar that could give away your position to someone nearby, and an "AP sensor" that made the controller vibrate when enemies were near. MGS4 gave players the "Threat Ring" which showed the relative locations of enemies surrounding Snake, but only when he held still and knelt on the ground, and also a sound-detecting radar in the form of the Solid Eye--loud explosions, gunfire and other turmoil would make it not work as well, but it provided a nice balance between the previous incarnations of Enemy-Detecting Radar.

Equal Opportunity Evil: The ranks of the various Quirky Miniboss Squads tend to be quite diverse. And then there're The Patriots.

Escort Mission: Raiden and Emma; Big Boss and EVA; Old Snake and Drebin's Stryker; Old Snake and the Van.

Everything Fades: Averted - except for the first MGS, dead bodies don't go and need to be hidden.

However, enemies killed in alert mode or action sequences will disappear (flicker out more like it), and occasionally in normal status if one waits long enough.

As a possible reference to this, Liquid Ocelot's elite FROG units immolate themselves once they're dead, and if Snake touches the bodies, they crumble to dust.

Evil Brit: Two of the most influential villains in the entire series are British: Zero, founder of the Patriots, and Liquid Snake, one of the only men in the world who can face Solid Snake in equal combat.

Subverted with Strangelove, who is more like an anti-heroic albino, Emma (who was the daughter of a British woman), and possibly Otacon, as the in-game novel In The Darkness Of Shadow Moses: The Unofficial Truth implies that Otacon has some British ancestry.

Averted in Peace Walker, where not only is the codec in that game not only not freezing time, but it also actively encouraged that you don't attempt to call when near enemies.

Expy: Snake shares many characteristics with Snake Plissken from Escape from New York, while Colonel Campell is Colonel Trautman from Rambo. Given that Kojima is an avowed movie fan, this is no surprise.

Eyepatch of Power: Subverted slightly in that Big Boss' eyepatch really is an eyepatch, while Old Snake's Solid Eye simply provides optical enhancements... as well as 'radar,' of sorts. Well, then there's also Solidus.

Fakeout Escape: One of the ways Snake can escape jail cells he ends up in is by simply hiding under the bed while the guard is gone.

Flawed Prototype: The eponymous Metal Gears, nuclear-armed walking tanks that never actually get into the production stage. RAY and the GEKKO are exceptions, but as the games are quick to remind us, they aren't actually Metal Gears.

The games themselves are riddled with foreshadowing. Starting from the first Metal Gear Solid we have references to Snake not ageing well and the mention of a few characters from MGS 2. MGS 2 gave us the revelation that the Metal Gear technology was originally Russian. Portable Ops brought in hints of who the Patriots really were.

Generation Xerox: All of Big Boss' children are as good fighters as him. Otacon is as much as genius at robotics as his dad and his (maybe) mom Dr. Stangelove.

Get On With It Already: Many cutscenes and conversations throughout the series. But none compare to all of MGS4. (Fortunately, almost all of the MGS4 cutscenes are skippable. Unfortunately, the exceptions include Big Boss' death, the awfully long credits, and the post-credits ending.)

Gone Horribly Right: The Patriots started the Les Enfantes Terrible project because they wanted perfect soldiers like Big Boss. They succeeded, and ended up with three guys who do not enjoy getting dicked around at all.

Graying Morality: The first game is very straightforward: you are to stop the leader of Outer Heaven to prevent war. Even though the leader turns out to be your commanding officer, it's very clear that you're supposed to stop him anyway. As the series goes on, it becomes less and less clear who, if anyone, is actually evil and not just a Well-Intentioned Extremist.

Groin Attack: In MGS2 and MGS3, shooting an enemy in the family jewels was a one hit kill. In MGS4, you can knock out a male enemy by crushing their balls. Performing it on a FROG-Trooper, however, turns it into a grope and a very angry FROG trooper.

Heal Thyself: Resting in hidden areas in MGS3 and MGS4 restores health, not to mention the fast-regenerating camouflage given to you by one of the bosses in MGS3. (In MGS4 there are at least two iPod songs that specifically increase Old Snake's recovery rate.)

Hot Scientist: Naomi Hunter. Otacon also becomes significantly more attractive with each game.

Hyperspace Arsenal: Unabashedly. You can carry about fifty weapons in MGS4, but only five at a time that you can wield in your menu. You can also carry an oil drum.

I Cannot Self-Terminate: Gray Fox has absolutely nothing to live for except one last battle with Solid Snake. Vamp's nano-machine enhanced Healing Factor prevents him from committing suicide. Fortune cannot be hit with bullets, and any grenades thrown in her vicinity end up being duds due to the top secret electromagnetic weapon developed by the Patriots that she is unknowingly carrying, but she lost everything after the tanker incident so this is actually a curse. All three are looking for a Worthy Opponent to finish them off. The Boss was a special case, as The Philosophers ordered her to die at Naked Snake's hands for the sake of a cover-up. She couldn't commit suicide, and she couldn't tell Snake what was going on. The fact that nuclear war would likely result if she stayed alive was also a factor. Even Snake fits this during MGS4, as he cannot die until he completes his mission.

Identical Grandson: Big Boss and the three Snake brothers are meant to resemble each other (notably in the fact that Solid Snake is a dead-ringer to Naked Snake, the young Big Boss, while Solidus Snake resembles the elder Big Boss).

Ignorance Is Bliss: The Emmerich family are never told that they are working on a machine that is going to be used to destory the world because they would not help. Thankfully they are incredibly gullible.

Seriously, though...piloting REX in MGS4 proves why Otacon's design was the most badass weapon ever developed in a semi-realistic setting.

Instant Sedation: Subverted and played straight. Shooting a guard (with no vest) in the chest or heart does this; but it'll take anywhere from thirty seconds to five minutes, depending on the difficulty level, to knock out a guard in any other zone.

Large Ham: Liquid Snake and his wacky arm gestures, Revolver Ocelot, and Death Seeker Fortune are guilty of this. And when Liquid's arm possesses Ocelot, the hamminess can barely be described.

Ocelot even calls Fortune out on this at the end of 2, before killing her "You were hamming it up as the tragic heroine, thanks to the script the Patriot's wrote for you."

Justified in MGS with Liquid as the graphics in the 90's didn't exactly allow for subtlety of movement. Not to mention it's supposed to be a deconstruction/homage of classic 60's spy and horror movies, a fact which Paramedic effectively spells out in 3.

Laser Sight: Useful. Since you don't use iron sights in MGS2, it's the only way to aim; and in MGS4, you'll need it if you use third person a lot.

Latex Perfection: Somewhat subverted; the mask's lips don't move, Snake's facial structure is roughly recognizable beneath the mask, and the FaceCamo used by Laughing Octopus and Snake is MUCH more advanced than current technology.

The first one represented conversations on the radio by showing a picture of each person in the conversation, with Mouth Flaps when they spoke. The most expressive they got were the occasional change in expression, Mei Link sticking her tongue out at you, and Otacon jamming his face up against the camera to warn you about stealthed assassins.

The second upped it with full models of the characters - however, the Mouth Flaps were really off, and the characters frequently used CODEC when they were standing right in front of each other.

The third dealt with the first problem by representing the characters with still pictures, as it took place in the 1960s, when two-way video-phone devices would be nonexistent.

The fourth game avoided it entirely by showing full videos of the character Snake was speaking to.

Lost in Translation: "La Li Lu Le Lo" are "missing" vowel sounds in Japanese; the point of the name is that it's not technically possible to write or say it in Hiragana (because there's no distinction between "L" and "R" and the string is usually "Ra Ri Ru Re Ro"), so the Patriots censor their name to something that can't be written down or spoken. This is never really gone into in the dub (since English doesn't do that), so it just seems to be meaningless babble.

Some could say that it worked out fine, while in english you can say "La Li Lu Le Lo", anyone who says that in the middle of a conversation for no reason seems silly and out of place. This makes it difficult to take their opinion seriously, thus getting the characters (and the viewer) to wonder about the legitimacy of their claims as well as the declaration of the existence of the patriots

Made of Iron: All the Snakes qualify to some extent, but Liquid takes the cake. He is survives a helicopter crash, a large explosion, a high fall and several gunshot wounds before finally succumbing to the FOXDIE. Even then, he is able to possess Ocelot through his arm except he isn't possessing Ocelot, it's a trick.

The Man Behind the Man: Like you wouldn't believe, though the Patriots could be more accurately described as the computer behind the man.

Manly Tears: In Snake Eater, after Naked Snake is promoted to the rank of Big Boss, having killed his mentor, The Boss, he visits her grave, and salutes her one last time as a single tear roll down his cheek.

Fifty years later, Big Boss visits her grave one final time, and attempts to salute her before collapsing from exhaustion...as as he enjoys one final smoke with his son, one more tear rolls down his cheek, and he dies with a faint smile on his face.

Mr. Exposition: Happens at the start of every game with the Colonel, Otacon, Major Zero, et cetera.

Mysterious Informant: Used in Metal Gear 2, Metal Gear Solid, and MGS2. The reason it was repeated in the original MGS was because Metal Gear 2 was only released in Japan, and MGS1 followed more or less the same plot in a different setting. The second time this happened was for another reason.

Nanomachines: Everything supernatural that happens? It's caused by these buggers in one way or another (with the possible exceptions of The Sorrow, Psycho Mantis, and Vulcan Raven).

New Game+: You start out with goodies in games before MGS4. MGS4, you get all your weapons and earned gear, plus goodies.

No Celebrities Were Harmed: The cover artwork of the original Metal Gear is blatantly traced from a well-known publicity still of Michael Biehn in Terminator, while the character designs in the MSX2 version of Metal Gear 2 are clearly modified photographs of actual celebrities such as Sean Connery, Mel Gibson, Tom Berenger, Richard Crenna, and Albert Einstein. In the cellphone and PS2 ports of Metal Gear 2, the character designs were revamped to resemble Shinkawa's designs from the later MGS games.

No Fourth Wall: One of the trademarks of the series. Characters explicitly describe the game's controls with a straight face; the Copy Protection involves a character asking you to look at the back of the game package; one of your Voices With An Internet Connection provides constant real-world advice on how to play your video game properly and healthily; a Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique scene involves the resident Magnificent Bastard warning you not to try to use autofire to beat the Mini Game; and everything involving Psycho Mantis, who used your save game content to "read your mind," the rumble feature on your controller to move it with "telekinesis," had a special move that caused your screen to turn black, and could only be defeated by unplugging your controller and plugging it into the second port (or by already having a second controller in the second port, and picking it up). And that's only what the first game does; the second, which explicitly aims to break the fourth wall, was worse.

It got to the point of Lampshade Hanging: during Act 4 of MGS4, Otacon calls Snake and tells him to put in disc 2. Then he remembers that, because the game is on a dual-layer Blu-ray disc, there is no disc 2. (Snake tells Otacon to stop fooling around, while players freak out due to the exact location of this conversation.) Then, when Psycho Mantis shows up again, he tries to pull the same tricks. However, he can't read your memory since the Play Station 3 doesn't have a memory card, and he can only make the controller vibrate if the player is using the Dualshock 3. And again in the previous boss fight, where the Colonel recommends using the same tricks against a different psychic boss, only to have them all shot down. Oh, and in Metal Gear AC!D2, when General Wiseman explains bits of the COST and CARD system to Snake, "Agent" Dalton hears all of this and confusedly says, "That just went right over my head."

Non-Linear Sequel: Has one of the most messy chronologies known to man - Metal Gear Solid Mobile is a good example. It seems to clearly fit in to the main timeline between MGS and MGS2, but the game's ending apparently makes it Canon Discontinuity..)

No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: Averted. Almost every Metal Gear built is based ont eh plans of the previous Metal Gear. Then the plans to make one got on the blakc market and everyone had a Metal Gear.

MGS3 actually kind of inverts it. When fighting The End, Para-Medic says that she has a bad feeling about saving. If you save and reload the game, The End sneaks up behind you and tranqs you in the head.

But if you save and wait a week before playing again, The End will have died of old age.

One Steve Limit: Strongly averted. The series has six characters whose names are variants of John - two Johns (one also called Jack), another Jack, two Johnnys and an Ivan, plus two more of the similarly-sounding Jonathan. Five of them appear in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, and each game in the series has at least one. The same series also includes two Davids, Jim and James, Natasha and Nastasha, two President Johnsons (the real-life Lyndon B. Johnson and the fictional James Johnson), and no less than five characters who have at some point gone by the codename Snake.

Pacifist Run: You receive a lower score at the end if you kill everything. Also, in MGS3 and MGS4, you get good bonus items from the bosses if you tranquilize them into submission instead of kill them. In MGS3, The Sorrow, a sub-boss that can't be killed, tries to kill you with guilt, sending the ghosts of your fallen (but not tranquilized) enemies stumbling towards you. The other bosses show up regardless of their ultimate demise, since even if you sedate them, they still use bombs to self-destruct. In MGS4beating the Beast forms of the Beauty & the Beast Corps allows the player to acquire their statue (collect them and the FROG statue for the Solar Gun), and beating the Beauty forms allows the player to collect their FaceCamo. As before, some of the Emblems (ranks) require a certain amount of kills (less than or more than) to acquire; the Pigeon and Big Boss Emblems for example require no kills.

Paper-Thin Disguise: In MGS1, Liquid disguises himself as an ally on Snake's codec by putting on sunglasses and changing his accent. Note that he still has the same voice, one distinctive enough that many players became suspicious the moment he opened his mouth. On the other hand, its subverted when the rereleases of Metal Gear 2 as well as his appearance in Peace Walker show that he actually does look like a disguised Liquid, and in the case of the latter game, even sounds like Liquid in disguise.

And, of course, you can hide inside cardboard boxes, which are literally a paper-thin disguise. Soldiers aren't totally fooled by these, though, especially in later games, and especially if the box is out in the open and in their way.

There's also Solid Snake disguising as Iriquois Pliskin in MGS2, by changing his uniform and nothing else.

And EVA as Tatyana in MGS3, which had her wearing glasses and her hair differently.

Parrot Exposition: David Hayter has joked in interviews that most of the dialogue he has to record consists of repeating the last couple words the other person said, and adding a question mark to it.

Ironically in MGS4, used by Old Snake to restore Psyche until his body builds up a tolerance (in both gameplay and a cutscene near the end of the playable part of the game), as well as to make Vamp mortal and to free himself and Meryl from Screaming Mantis' nanomachine control.

Post End Game Content: You'll always get something the first time you complete the game, and some more rewards if you also fulfill certain objectives during it. New Game+ gives you access to it.

Powered Armor: The Cyborg Ninja in the first MGS was a partial case, being a cyborg and all. The ninja and Solidus in MGS2 on the other hand are textbook cases.

Potty Failure: A running (ew) theme in the Metal Gear Solid games is toilet humour; generally, at least one case of someone wetting themselves occurs per game. 4 upped the ante with a scene of a man soiling himself in public. Um...Thanks, Kojima.

Prison Episode: The first game and Portable Ops involves a relatively easy prison escape; Solid 1 and 3 and Peace Walker have relatively challenging ones.

Redshirt Army: The SEALs sent in to deliver the Nuclear Football in MGS2 (to be fair, they're up against a vampire and an unkillable woman with a railgun), the US Army/Marine Corps task force in MGS4 (though they later fend off a horde of FROG units).

The series' use of it is inverted near the end of Guns of the Patriots when the Scarabs start piling on Snake: "OOOTACOOOOOOON!" Inverted both for Snake being the one to use it, and it being a genuinely tense and dramatic moment instead of meme-fuel.

Snake screamed Otacon's name again earlier in Guns of the Patriots when he got half of his face burned very badly.

This almost qualifies as a CMOA during the final duel when after Snake takes an absolutely brutal beating at the hands of Liquid Ocelot he turns the fight around by breaking his enemy's fingers. As Snake rises he screams his rival's name with a cry of rage and frustration, to be answered in kind as the camera spins. And they they really start beating the hell out of each other.

Metal Gear Solid 4 had Liquid Ocelot take his shirt off before his climactic duel with Snake.

Shout-Out: Vietnam War-era jungle setting of the game aside, Snake of Metal Gear Solid 3 is a shout-out to James Bond AND John Rambo. The former is paid tribute to in the music of the alert phases, whereas the latter happens when Snake roars Sylvester Stallone's trademark battle-cry when firing an M63 machine gun. Solid 'Old' Snake also roars like this when firing the M60E4 in Guns of the Patriots, signifying how much he has become like his father.

Of course, Hideo Kojima has shoutouts to his own work as well, with Policenaut posters and Snake can actually use the Gun De Sol from Boktai as a bonus weapon, the Solar Gun, by acquiring the FROG statue and the B&B Corps statues, by defeating them (for the B&B Corps their Beast forms) all nonlethally.

Metal Gear Mk. 2 originally appeared in Kojima's Snatcher. Except that one was a reference to the original Metal Gear. A reference is even made to the "Metal Gear Menace" of the late 20th century.

The freight Elevator in MGS is a near exact duplicate of the one in Akira,and even leads down to a sub-zero area.

Solid Snake's name is a shoutout to Snake Plissken from Escape from New York. The film is one of Kojima's favourites, and was a large influence on the series (particularly notable is the theme of an uncaring government sacrificing heroes for minor or personal gain).

The MGS4 "Chair Race" trailer featured a battle between Snake and Raiden over a chair labeled "main character". Snake's gear and method of movement in the trailer is reminiscent of Sam Fisher.

Skippable Boss: MGS3's The End - using two methods! Either set the clock ahead so that he dies of old age, or snipe him when he appears in his wheelchair -- albeit the latter will lead to the boss fight areas being instead patrolled by 20 enemy soldiers. In MGS4 there are no truly skippable bosses, but any damage to her Life or Psyche that Raging Raven takes during the motorcycle chase sequence will carry over to the 'true' boss fight, so go fire on her with whichever bar of hers you wish to damage later.

Also, if you blow up the HIND at the ammo dump, you won't have to face it later when you're climbing the mountain. If you blow up the rest of the ammo dump along with it, the soldiers you face later will run out of bullets quickly.

Sniper Scope Sway: Sniper rifles are common, and generally accompanied by this. You can use pentazemin (or a cigarette) to relax and reduce the tremble when scoping.

Spotting the Thread: The fact that the DARPA Chief refers to the terrorist act as a revolution is a major hint that he might not be who he claims to be. Yet no one picks up on this, despite the fact that they know for a fact a master of disguise is among the Fox Hound renegades.

And in MGS3, there are several blatantly obvious hints that EVA might not be who she says she is, in her very first scene. She fails to answer the code phrase, instead gunning down several mooks... with a Mauser C96, which was only used by one nation during the Cold War: China. She even uses the "Bandit Shooting" technique that was invented specifically to take advantage of that gun's tremendous recoil. She ends up being a Chinese triple agent tasked with tracking down the Philosopher's Legacy. Of course, Snake doesn't pick up on any of this, due to EVA's Absolute Cleavage. Neither do most players.

Spy Catsuit: Inverted - only the men get them. And look damn Fan Servicey in them, too. EVA comes close in her form-fitting motorcycle outfit with Absolute Cleavage, and the FROGs wear a combat version of this.

The Beauties get some very form fitting suits. When facing off against Raging Raven, after she sheds her suit and turns away, still quite insane, Snake stares at her butt. Please note that originally, it was intended to be averted.

Start of Darkness: Metal Gear Solid 3, Portable Ops, and Peace Walker detail the events behind Big Boss' transformation from a young, patriotic soldier into a war hero disillusioned with the modern world's treatment of soldiers.

Title Drop: Solidus Snake's terrorist group in MGS2 are the Sons of Liberty, Snake's mission in MGS3 is codenamed Operation Snake Eater, and Ocelot calls his master plan in MGS4 the Guns of the Patriots. Metal Gear is first introduced this way in the first game.

Transplant: Very few people knew that Meryl Silverberg was originally from the Japan-only Policenauts, and a version of Metal Gear Mk. II from Snatcher appears in MGS4. However, they are very different verisons of those characters. Versions of Jonathan and Ed appear in MGS4 as well, and in Japanese are played by the same Policenauts actors, just like Meryl. Incidentally their actors happen to be Otacon and Psycho Mantis as well.

And as if that wasn't enough, the final battle with Ocelot is an arcade-style fighting game.

Unusable Enemy Equipment: Though MGS2 managed to partially subvert this by having one CODEC conversation that explained that the weapons had an ID system that recognized a specific person, it's odd though how they didn't explain this more directly.

Finally averted in MGS4 by Snake getting a "hack" into the system... as a result, weapon pickups are a notable part of gameplay, and in Screaming Mantis's case it's necessary to pick up her Mantis Doll to defeat her.

Video Game Caring Potential: It's entirely possible (And encouraged) to beat Twin Snakes, 2 and 4 without killing a single enemy. 3 also falls into this, as you are only required to kill a single enemy: The Boss. In fact, the fewer enemies you kill in 3, the easier time you will have with one of the miniboss fights.

Vodka Drunkenski: Several of the San Hieronymo Soviet personnel, Colonel Skowronski, and Granin were shown drinking vodka a lot, and they are also all Russian (obviously). Unlike most examples of the trope however, their reasons were completely justifed, due to certain incidents that were depressing or angering enough for them to require getting themselves drunk.

Voice with an Internet Connection: The Codec. Probably a fourth wall breach, although it is also implied a few instances that the Codec does have people observing what is going on.

The War Sequence: Raiden fights up to twenty mass-produced Metal Gears in MGS2, and several Gekkos in MGS4.

Warrior Heaven: Big Boss and Liquid Snake try to make this ideal on Earth by making the world into "Outer Heaven," a world where warriors will always be needed, honored and respected, although in MGS4, it appears that Big Boss' motive may have been to create a world free from the Patriots... that was certainly why Liquid Ocelot claimed to have had Outer Haven, at least.

What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: In MSG3 (Naked) Snake is given the order to meet with his contacts Adam and Eva. Eva goes so far to ask him if he has come to seduce her.

Rather interesting, as (Naked) Snake manages to successfully seduce bothAdam and Eva. Without even trying or noticing, even.

In MSG4 an apple falls from (Old) Snake's pocket and rolls towards Eva, who picks it up. Later she hands the same apple to Adam (aka Ocelot), who crushes it and throws it away.

With This Herring: Justified as weapons and equipment being OSP, On-Site Procured. In Metal Gear Solid 3, we learn that Big Boss' original codename, Naked Snake, is taken in part from this.

In a neat twist on previous games' weapons progression, the first weapon pickup in MGS4 is the AK-102 assault rifle found right next to Old Snake after one of the first cutscenes, and it's the Mk.II suppressed tranquilizer pistol and suppressable lethal Operator pistol which are received next, instead of the other way around as in the past. It's markedly inferior though to the M4 Custom which you pick up not long after the pistols.

Wild Mass Guessing: Worth mentioning because some of the WMG theories are less crazy than what's canon.

War Is Hell: Largely no one is really proud of what they are doing, and only the Complete Monsters don't suffer a lot because of it or have any real joy in what they do.

When It All Began: Although it's not really apparent until the end of the series, pretty much everything that happens in the Metal Gear universe has its roots in August 1964, the Virtuous Mission which sparked Operation Snake Eater and led to the creation of the Patriots.

Those are only the deepest roots of the main conflict. Some pieces of the puzzle go back to the turn of the 20th century, when the Philosophers were founded.